Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	form_n	prayer_n	use_v	4,815	5	5.9954	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61498	The old Puritan detected and defeated, or, A brief treatise shewing how by the artifice of pulpit-prayers our dissenters, at all times, have endeavour'd to undermine the liturgy of the reformed Church of England together with the fault and danger of such prayers, whether vented extempore, or forethought by the speaker / by a most learned and reverend divine now with God.	Steward, Richard, 1593?-1651.	1682 (1682)	Wing S5524; ESTC R16271	6,447	12

enjoyned us to use no Publick Prayers but the Liturgy Except his Majesty give special leave upon some extraordinary occasion for the drawing up of Forms which leave has ground de jure Communi both Ecclesiastical and Civil it follows that neither Church nor State have given power to any to vent Themselves in such Open Prayers in the Church because they Expresly forbid it To presume then to use such prayers contains in it a Complication of several Sins First A sin of Falshood or the breach of a Solemn Promise confirmed by Subscription to the Church Secondly It is an Act of Disobedience to the Higher Powers and so 't is an express sin against the Fifth Commandment Thirdly It is an Act of Injury and Vsurpation Offer'd to the Church in presuming to thrust themselves into a Sacred Office which such men are not intrusted with nor thought fit at all to Execute For Many may be able to discourse unto Men since if they chance there to fail in point of Truth or Congruity the matter is of less Consequence But the Church will trust but Few that shall Lead men when they speak to God because there a Falshood may oft prove an Abomination in speech and an Incongruity may soon amount to Blasphemy I would gladly Demand of any prudent Person whether he conceives that when the Church of England was in her greatest Glory she had ever in it 9500 persons answerable to the 9500 Parishes that were able to Lead the People in Prayer Sad Experience tells us the Contrary and informs us loudly enough of their Solaecisms and Blasphemies And the same Experience tells us that the Directory helps them not at this Dead Lift Nay it may often prove the greatest Impediment since were some weak men allow'd to choose as well their matter as their words they might perhaps come off with some tolerable approbation But being forc't to Confine themselves to matter which either they well understand not or are not so much used to speak on their Prayers are oft times vain and ridiculous or which is worse Erroneous or Blasphemous The Licentiousness of Devotion that Each Private Priest durst adventure to Lead others in Publick Prayer breeding great disturbance in the Primitive Church brought the Fathers to Decree thus in the 2 d. Council of Milevis where St. Augustine sate as appears by the Subscription that no Publick Prayer should be offer'd up to God that had not been approv'd of in a Council or at least Agreed upon by the more discreet sort of men Ne fortè aliquid contra Fidem vel per Ignorantiam vel per minus studium sit Compositum least either through Ignorance or for want of due pains the Publick Faith might receive hurt through such Prayers Now besides other Hurts which the Church of England hath received by this unlawful Course all may know she hath received one remarkable mischief in the Neglect and Scorn of Her Liturgy For when Cartwright that Puritan Incendiary saw he wanted Power either to Extirpate or Alter our Establisht Book of common-Common-Prayer He was the First durst boldly use this Forbidden Knell of Devotion which he and those who follow'd him improv'd to so great an height by Posting over our Liturgy with so much Carelesness and Scorn and by giving all the Advantages to those Forms of their own advantages both of the Voice and of the Eyes and of the Hands that the People began ere long to think that the Reading of the Liturgy was but a Vseless Task impos'd by the Church on the Priests But that they compleatly serv'd God if they came in to the Church when the Psalms were singing because besides that they praised God and had the Benefit of a Sermon they heard a long Prayer too And that set out with all the Devotion and all the Advantages it could possibly receive from the Art or from the Natural good Parts of that Person who compos'd it So that he who will needs continue the use of these Forbidden Prayers in the Pulpit takes the readiest Course as much as in him lies for the rooting out of the Publick Liturgy Object It may be said perhaps that many Church-men both of great Knowledge and great Place have themselves used these Forms of Praying And upon that ground why may not they Ans. Truly if to Argue at this rate were Concluding it might soon free us not only from the tyes of many English Laws but from the Obligation also of the Decalogue it self which without all doubt is broken often enough not only by those of the Common Sort but by men of great Place and Knowledge But we must Distinguish between Consuetudo and Corruptela and so Learn that Vsages taken up against express written Laws are Corruptions but not Iustifiable Customs I suppose that these men do not at all like the Course that the Independents now use in Prayer who permit this Extemporary or Voluntary way not only to the Priests but to their Souldiers and to their Mechanicks And I Imagine a main cause of their mistakes to be because such an office is intruded on by those men who have no just Authority to perform it But then if they would consider things well they would easily find that this use of Forbidden Prayer has Metamorphos'd them into Independents since they have no more Authority to compose such Forms from the Apostolick Church that Ordain'd them than either that person has who is now employ'd to make shoes or that other Ecclesiastick whose Formalities are a Belt and a Buff Ierkin One thing I shall add more and it is a short Discourse how the Pulpit Forms of Prayer were brought into the Church of England We must know then that in the times of Popery the manner Commonly was to use the Lords Prayer or else an Ave Maria before Sermon So that when King Edward the Sixth came to Compose his Injunctions He made Choice as he had very good Reason of the Lords Prayer for that purpose But because it was thought fit that the Kings just Supremacy in Ecclesiastical things should be at least Weekly publisht to the People it was thought Expedient to premise to the Pater-noster a Form as his Injunction styles it of Bidding Prayer wherein the Priest was not to speak to God but only to the People Exhorting them to pray Instantly for such and such Persons and things but He pray'd not to God at all until he clos'd his Exhortation with the Lords Prayer This was likewise confirmed in the Injunctions of Queen Elizabeth and Expresly called the Form of Bidding Prayer And when King Iames of Blessed Memory turned those Injunctions into Canons his Law runs Canon 55. That Ministers should move the People to joyn with them in Prayers viz. in this Form of Bidding Prayer Ye shall Pray for Christ's Catholick Church c. concluding always with the Lords Prayer Now Let any Indifferent man Judge Are Exhortations proper Forms of Prayer Nay let a Discerning person Consider it well and it will appear that things there prudently spoken by way of Exhortation and Narration would prove very Absurd in Prayer How fond would it appear to tell the great God of Heaven and Earth of the King 's most Excellent Majesty our Soveraign Lord Charles by the Grace of God King of England Scotland France and Ireland Defender of the Faith c. or as some oft do to tell God of such a Lord Earl of such a place and Baron of another One of his Majesties most Honourable Privy Council and his very good Lord and Patron c. And yet when we do but exhort them to joyn their Prayers such Clauses may not be unfit I can scarce think of any other apparent way to defend them And yet 't is true this Form is there viz. Canon 55. call'd a Prayer before Sermon And so it is because we then say together with the Preacher the Lords Prayer to those very purposes he Exhorts And they well know who know Divinity that all kinds of prayer are reducible to that Holy Form But it follows not that the Preachers Exhortation is a Prayer Or that he then at all speaks to God himself but only to the People Indeed upon an occasion Extraordinary it is a Prayer of no Ordinary Composition and therefore call'd the Form of Bidding Prayer both by a Reform'd King and a very glorious Queen and yet de facto disus'd by an Itching Puritanical Humour at first no doubt by Cunning and Design and afterwards as I verily think for the most part by mistake of the bad end to which it drove or by Inadvertency of the Law But it is most apparent that such Forbidden Prayers are an Especial means to Eat out the whole English Liturgy FINIS * Alsop against Dr. St. Hickringil c. † v. The Form of Ordination c. * Quod ipse in publicis precibus Sacramentis administrandis illam prorsus formam quae in dicto libro praescribitur non aliam sit observaturus Sparrow's Collections p. 287. * v. The Acts of Uniformity and especially That in primo Eliz. which is still in force as will appear by that in xiv Car. ii and is meant by the Author See also lib. quorundam Canon ib. p. 238. parag 2. * But in Ordination the Person to be Ordain'd is rather call'd to the contrary as is shewn above in the first Argument v. Sparrows Coll. p. 47. and p. 60 * Canon 12. † This is also repeated in the 70 th Canon of the Council of Africk And hereunto agrees the 3 d. Conc. Carthag Can. 23. see also Microl. de Eccles. Observ. c. 4. Orationes quae ab Ecclesia probatae non sunt rejiciantur as 't was decreed under Carolus magnus * In the Composers * This is too true but makes it not a whit more Lawful † 'T is call'd there the Form of Bidding the Common-prayers Sparrow's Collect. p. 10. * The Title is The Form of Bidding the Prayers to be us'd Generally in this uniform so●t Spar. Collections p. 85. * Populum Hortabuntur ut secum in precibus Concurrat c. Sparrows Coll. p. 294. * Or desire them † From impertinence in that practice * Precationis formula in Concionum ingressu ibid. * Such as this appears to have been in th●design and use of it * Edw. 6. and Q. Eliz. ut supra * And perhaps Both.

THE OLD PURITAN Detected and Defeated OR A BRIEF TREATISE SHEWING How by the Artifice of Pulpit-Prayers our Dissenters at all times have endeavour'd to undermine the Liturgy of the Reformed CHURCH of ENGLAND Together with The Fault and Danger of such Prayers whether vented Extempore or fore-thought by the Speaker By a most Learned and Reverend Divine now with God Now I beseech you Brethren that ye all speak the same thing and that there be no Divisions among you 1 Cor. 1.10 LONDON Printed for W. Davis in Amen-Corner 1682. The Publisher to the Reader AT this time of day when the Reverend and Learned Clergy of the Church of England are so great Ornaments of the Pulpit and so justly admir'd for their performances in Preaching he that would take upon him to instruct them how to behave themselves in it had need be a very wonderful and extraordinary Person for Learning and Authority or else he will be thought to charge himself with a most invidious and vain glorious Task But the Author of the following Tract was well known to be such a Person a man of great Reverence and Learning and worthily Design'd for a Principal Governor in this Church if it had pleas'd God to spare us so great a Blessing a little longer And therefore it should not be thought any great presumption to set down His sence of the Clergies Duty Especially in a matter that does not touch on the preaching part but concerns only Discipline and is neglected by most as himself thought it was through mistake of its bad consequences or by Inadvertency of the Law that has enjoyn'd it For some years both before and since this Copy came to my hands I have observ'd in many places and especially about London a great disuse of the practice here contended for And having discours'd with several concerning it I must needs say I have not been yet so fortunate as to meet with any Reasons sufficient in my Iudgment to justify the Common practice or to outweigh my Author's arguments against it I know that the Title of the Canon cited by him viz 55. primo Jacobi runs thus Precationis Forma à Concionatoribus in concionum suarum Ingressu imitanda but I am not convinc'd that the intention of the Canon is fullfil'd when the matter of it is turn'd into the proper Form of a Prayer Because we are hereby oblig'd to follow this very Form which is plainly the Form of Bidding Prayer the word being all along precamini and not precemur And in the Beginning 't is populum hortabuntur they shall move or exhort the People to pray but not pray with them till the Conclusion So that the next words I● hunc aut similem modum may not be understood of changing the Form of Bidding Prayer into a formal direct Prayer but barely to allow a Liberty of altering only the words so as may be suitable to any Emergent occasion or particular Circumstance keeping still to this Form in the nature of an Exhortation Wherefore seeing 't is so praescrib'd by K. Edw. 6th by Q. Eliz. and here by K. James and ratify'd since by the succeeding Powers a●● not repeal'd by any later Constitutions I see no reason why it may safely be dispenc't with unless we infer from the general usage that there is in this case a Tacit Consent of the Church But I don't find why the Church should be thought to Agree and Consent privily to that which she has Decreed otherwise in a publick manner And however she may Connive or tolerate or forbear to punish Offenders yet this will in no case acquit them of the guilt Besides there is the less ground to Argue upon the Churches Consent because many Eminent Church-men that should share in it have declar'd themselves of this Authors opinion and do practice accordingly The Dissenters tho' they hate nothing but Monarchy perhaps more than our Establisht Uniformity yet are so fond of any pretence against us that of late they have had the hardiness to Tax the Conforming Clergy with the Breach of it in matters as of less moment and not so ill consequence as this here treated of so much more Difficult if not impossible to be remedied And I am told the Popish Faction hath taken hold of the very same occasion to bespatter and revile our Discipline And farther I know many Regular and sound Divines that both use this Form of Bidding Prayer and no other and are also dissatisfy'd with such as do not use it so that such would do well either to shew good reasons why they disuse it and to make those Reasons as publick as this Paper Or else to Testify their Conviction by the use of it For if my Authors proofs stand firm and unshaken their contrary Custom or their great numbers will not justify them in the other practice How long soever they have been in the wrong 't is no shame at last to yield Obedience to the Truth and to the Law But if they make it appear against this Author that they are in the Right or that 't is but a matter of meer Indifferency whether we use this or another Form t is hop'd that the Rest of the Clergy may follow their way for Uniformity's sake Or that whether they do or no yet neither they nor the People may be Scandaliz'd if both ways be prov'd Lawful There is no other Design in the Publication of this paper than to procure a strict Conformity in the practice of the matter in hand or a General satisfaction to such as are Scrupulous about it I shall say no more but only give notice that the Authors words are kept entire in the Body of the Text The marginal notes being added by the publisher to make his meaning clear and to ease the Reader in perusal of his Citations by referring directly to their places THE GENERAL PROPOSITION Maintaining That it is not Lawful for any Person that has received Holy Orders in the Church of England to use any Extemporary or Praemeditated Prayers of his own private Composure either before or after Sermon in the Church in the publick Worship and service but only the Liturgy set forth and allowed FIrst Because it is directly against his own Solemn Promise made to the Church when he came to be Ordained And that promise is set under his hand when he subscribed the Three Articles contained in Canon 36 the Second whereof runs thus That he will use the service-Service-Book praescribed in Publick Prayer and no other Secondly Because the use of such prayers is directly against an Act of Parliament viz. That For the Vniformity of common-Common-Prayers which enjoyns peremptorily under sharp punishments that no man shall use any other open Prayer than is mentioned and set forth in the said Book Thirdly No man is to presume to exercise any Sacerdotal Office except he be called to it as was Aaron Seeing therefore both the Church and State have expresly